The New Zealand woman gunned down alongside her British boyfriend in Libya was visiting him for the first time and was only in the country for a short time, it has emerged.

Lynn Howie, 47, a mother of two, had travelled from her home in Wellington to Libya for a brief holiday with oil worker and former RAF officer Mark De Salis.

The pair had been enjoying a picnic on a beach close to the Mellitah oil complex in Zuwarah, around 60 miles west of Tripoli, when they were murdered.

They were each shot in the back of the head and their bodies left lying face down on the sand surrounded by their belongings.

A friend of Miss Howie’s said: “She had gone there to visit her new partner, Mark De Salis. She wasn’t even supposed to be there for long. She was a beautiful person, you couldn’t ask for a bubblier friend.

“She was hard-working and just lots of fun. She lived life to the fullest so it didn’t surprise me that she was going to Libya.”

Mr De Salis, 46, a former Flight Lieutenant in the RAF, had been working as a manager at an engineering firm serving the oil industry for the past six years.

He was married and his wife Karen, 48, worked as a personal assistant to the celebrity chef Nathan Outlaw.

She moved to Libya with her husband in 2007 but returned three years later and it was not clear whether the couple had split.

The family of Mr De Salis, who is originally from Sheffield, issued a statement in which they described their shock and devastation at his murder.

The statement said: “The family of Mark De Salis are shocked and devastated to hear about Mark's death in Libya. Mark had been working in Tripoli in Libya for six years.

“He worked for First Engineering and was currently working as a power manager bringing generators to Tripoli to provide electricity. Mark enjoyed his work in Tripoli and liked the Libyan people.

"Mark enjoyed travelling and had travelled extensively. He was a decent and incredibly loyal man and he was loved by many. He will be sadly missed by his family and friends. "Mark was with a close friend from New Zealand who was also killed and our thoughts are with her family at this sad time.”

An investigation has been launched into the murder but it is not thought that robbery was a motive as the couple still had money in their pockets when their bodies were found.